For 2,000 years now, we’ve had this collective agreement that the end of October is a time for ghosts and monsters to slink into our world and meddle in our affairs. Samhain. The Celtic New Year. A time when the veil between the world of the living and world of the dead is at its thinnest.

So we dress up our children as the creatures we fear in the hopes of confusing the beasts that they won’t drag our offspring back into the underworld with them. We leave out food offerings for the dead, and we dance with the devil in the moonlight just for this one night.

We’re paying attention to these strange entities this month, and so maybe those ghosts and monsters are paying a little more attention to us as well.

In October I’ve been offering a paranormal program somewhere every single night. Since I wrote to you last month, I’ve been to England, Ireland, Chicago, and all over New England. I’ve already met thousands of new faces this past month, all of them eager to discuss this enigmatic topic. The discussion is the most important part of what we do. Sharing these stories and experiences is what connects us to our past and to each other. We live in a time when we need that connection more than ever. We need to look at what we have in common as opposed to what makes us different.

Death, ironically, is the great equalizer. Every one of us is going to die one day. We may as well get used to it, and maybe we can start treating each other as fellow travelers to the grave.

2017 marks the 18th birthday of Ghostvillage.com, plus it’s the 20th anniversary of how long I’ve been writing about the paranormal. That’s a pretty good run, and it wouldn’t have happened without you.

In addition to my Fall tour, I want to remind all of you about my new podcast called New England Legends. The response has been amazing so far! Each episode is one story of a legend from somewhere in New England. And they’re short. Usually around 7 minutes long. We post them each week on Ghostvillage, but you can also subscribe for free on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help us out? Please consider posting a review on iTunes. It goes a long way to helping us get the word out!

Thank you for an amazing two decades in the paranormal so far. I’m wishing you and yours a wickedly awesome and spooky Halloween!